Landing Pad

"Shut up! Those who don't want to leave, find your own rooms and hide. Don't drag others down with you." Chloe shouted angrily, her authority as the base commander immediately intimidating the sobbing female Riken Race.

"Oh no, the hatch won't open." The hatches inside the base are usually controlled by artificial intelligence, but now that the base has lost power, the AI has also stopped functioning. Naturally, the hatches can't be opened or closed at will.

However, the base was designed with this power outage in mind during its construction, and the hatches are equipped with basic mechanical opening devices, commonly known as manual opening devices.

Several robust patients stepped forward under the light of their companions' flashlights. Although they were still somewhat weak, they were still stronger than the clerical staff.

They opened a panel on the hatch, revealing an old-fashioned throttle handle. Several strong men each grabbed a spot, and together they pulled, slowly turning the handle and opening the hatch.

The group hurried through, but due to the slow opening efficiency, the group's progress was now slightly behind the Zerg's advance.

While the Zerg were passing through 10 hatches, the Zerg had already passed through 14.

This won't do; we have to think of something, otherwise we might be overtaken by the Zerg before we even reach the Landing Pad.

"Turn left here," Chloe suddenly said after passing through two more hatches.

"Sir, turning left will take us on a longer route," Kaida reminded him urgently. He had to ensure Chloe's safe arrival at the Landing Pad.

"Turn left and go through two more hatches to find a storage room with three sets of Exoskeleton Armor. With them, we can open the doors much faster," Chloe explained.

Upon hearing that Chloe wasn't planning to change their destination, Kaida stopped talking and instead focused on clearing the way.

A moment later, with the help of the Exoskeleton Armor, the team's movement speed was indeed much faster. What used to require several strong men to turn the device could now be easily accomplished by just two armors.

Although the movement of these three armored vehicles was quite loud, there was no time to worry about that now. The Zerg seemed to have locked onto their location, and no matter how carefully they had concealed their presence, they hadn't been able to deceive the Zerg.

Due to the power outage, Personal Terminal, although equipped with their own batteries, can still be used. However, the surveillance systems in the base have stopped working, making it impossible to determine the exact location of the Zerg.

In the dark passage, the beams of tactical flashlights darted about, illuminating paths. Footsteps, breathing, and occasional sobs seemed amplified countless times in the darkness, becoming clearly audible.

Whether it was a hallucination or not, Chloe felt that the rustling sound of Zerg scraping against the steel wall was approaching behind her. The sound was faint, constantly testing her nerves.

She finally couldn't resist turning around and shining her flashlight behind her, but all she saw was a dark wall and the faintly visible, re-closing hatch in the distance.

However, her actions still caused panic among many people in the group.

More and more flashlights were shining behind them, but even though they found nothing, the group grew increasingly frightened, as if an invisible beast was chasing them in the darkness.

"Chloe, hold on, reinforcements will arrive in ten minutes." Although the base's energy supply has been disrupted, the communication functions of Personal Terminal are still working as usual.

After the base's surveillance system lost power, the live stream from the conference room was also cut off. After that, Major Porter connected with Chloe, offering her encouragement and providing her with intelligence.

At first, Chloe was able to reply with a few words, explaining her current situation. But later, her nerves became increasingly tense. She just wanted to get to the Landing Pad as soon as possible and had no mind to reply anymore. Only Major General Porter occasionally gave a few intelligence messages on the communicator.

The more they ran, the weaker their legs became, unsure whether it was from exhaustion or fear.

Fortunately, despite the terrifying journey, the Zerg did not appear. Under these circumstances, the group finally arrived at the top-floor Landing Pad.

Since most of the personnel at the base had been reassigned to support other areas, they would need to use transportation to get out. Therefore, only three Transport Craft and two Gunboat remained in the hangar.

It's a pipe dream to think that these five spaceships can take away these hundreds of people.

The problem that Chloe had been worried about just ten minutes ago was now a stark reality, forcing her to confront it.

No matter how she allocates resources, some people will always be sacrificed.

Fortunately, Kaida stepped forward and took the blame. "A few of you who can fly a spaceship, get on board. The rest of you, find weapons and prepare for defense. Rescue will arrive in ten minutes. If we're lucky, we won't even have to face the Zerg."

Everyone thought it made sense, and they put away their previous little schemes. There were two Equipment Depot next to the Landing Pad, which stored some weapons and Breathing Mask.

The weapons were originally locked, but unfortunately, after the power outage, all the electronic locks became disabled, allowing the team to obtain some weapon supplies.

With weapons in hand, the group felt a little braver.

Chloe even felt she should take this opportunity to show off and lead the team in defense for a few minutes, which shouldn't be too difficult. If successful, it would greatly enhance her resume.

But just as she was about to deliver a motivational speech, she saw a large hole slowly corroded into the closed hatch dozens of meters away. Moments later, several Raider emerged from it.

This was the first time Chloe had been so close to the Zerg. Previously, she had only seen video footage and hadn't found the Raider particularly terrifying. She even felt they possessed a kind of wild beauty.

Furthermore, the Raider are only a few dozen centimeters long, while the average height of the Riken Race is around two meters. Most of the Riken Race, who have never actually come into contact with the Zerg, cannot imagine how terrifying these little creatures are.

But now, when they actually appeared before them, their sharp forelimbs evoked a fear in these intelligent beings of sharp objects. The oppressive force emanating from the silent individuals emerging from the holes terrified the Riken Race.

"Take the lieutenant colonel and go first!" Kaida roared at his men. His patrol had been captured as a whole, and when they were rescued, most of them were still intact.

The two team members habitually obeyed orders, escorting Chloe towards the nearest Gunboat. Chloe did not resist and obediently followed the soldiers, while her Adjutant also took the opportunity to catch up.

Seeing them move, the courage that the others had just mustered vanished, and several Riken Person cried and ran towards the spaceship. These few led to even more people, and the newly established defensive line collapsed before it even truly engaged the Zerg.

Fortunately, the wounded soldiers still had professional ethics; instead of retreating, they pointed their guns at the hatch.

"Shoot! Block them! Don't let too many of them come out!" Kaida shouted, and instantly, a barrage of fiery red energy beams shot forward, turning several Raider that had just crawled out into charred remains.

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